Free Write Friday: Love Nest

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Free Write Friday prompt. I’ve been looking forward to it all day long and when today’s prompt I actually squealed! This is a time and scenario prompt so I hope you enjoy it!

Source: We Heart It
We Heart It

“Late summer, You’re wondering, lost in the woods. You come across a gypsy wagon, and you call out, “hello?”

Alex was loving her time out with her best friends Chloe and Sophia. It was so nice of her dad to have kept their old camping gear in the garage as she didn’t want to buy all new stuff for only three nights out, especially when she knew that it would be the only outdoor experience that her friends would want to do. Chloe and Sophia were NOT the type of girls to do anything that has to deal with camping in general. They were too high-maintenance for all that, which meant that Alex would be the one to put the tent, make the fire, and find hiking a pleasure instead of a pain in the ass like they would. Alex was surprised to hear that Chloe was willing to learn though, as long as she break her nails. Alex’s reaction to Sophia’s text message if she should pack her black high heels instead of her new red flats made her worry about what the hell she was doing. It might end up being the biggest regret she’s ever made in her life.

When Alex and her father packed everything up into her small car, she headed out to Chloe and Sophia’s apartment. Alex walked up the stairs and knocked on the door, when Chloe opened the door, she was dressed all in white and said, “I’m all ready!” Alex couldn’t help but giggle. “Um, Chloe. You may not want to wear all white.” Alex said, trying to contain herself. “Why? You don’t think it’s cute?” Chloe said in her high-pitched voice that she always pulls out when she’s worried. “Well, no, it’s adorable, but you are going out in the woods. There’s mud, grass, and well, animal poop.” Alex said as she broke the news to her friend, who was now in disgust and looked like she was on the edge of tears. “I’ll go change…” Chloe said as she sprinted out of the room. “Help yourself to anything you want in the kitchen, I’ll be back. Sophia should be out of the shower soon. Should I tell her not to wear white too?” Again, Alex tried to hold on as best as she could, she hollered out to her friend, “yes, that might be a good idea.” “Okay, I’ll do that.” Chloe said, within two minutes later all you could hear next was Sophia saying out loud, “WHAT?! Don‘t people clean that shit up?” Alex was basically at this point dying of laughter. Sophia walked in, wrapped into her towel, hair going crazy, “well, it’s not the zoo.” Alex said as she wiped away her tears. “Oh my god, I’m going to die.” Sophia said as she stomped out of the room.

After an hour of explaining and coaxing Chloe and Sophia to go with her even though they had the wrong idea about everything. Poor Alex had the job of going through their bags beforehand and checking out their clothes, between both bags they had about 40% of what they really needed. An additional thirty minutes later, she finally got their things figured out and all three girls were on their way out into the outdoors. While riding in Alex’s car that was literally packed with all of their stuff and needed camping gear too. The girls spent the whole two hours of driving soaking up as much internet as possible before pulling into the dirt road to the deep woods. The car tumbled all around on the road and as they went deeper and deeper in the woods, the sisters noticed that their signals in their phones was getting lower to the point were nothing worked on them. “Oh my god! My signal’s gone! What the hell? I just charged you up!” Sophia screamed out from the backseat. “Alex, you didn’t say our signals would go out.” Sophia said as she leaned up to Alex’s seat. Alex kept her eyes on the narrow road, while Sophia’s younger sister had her face pressed up against the window in awe of the trees, bright green leaves, and dead little critters along the side of the road. What little happy moment she was having, it was quickly ruined and she started bawling! “Aw, a little squished possum! Poor baby!” Chloe said as she leaned back on her seat.

“We’re here!” Alex said as they pulled into the end of the road and turned off the car. She was all smiles, but when she looked over at her friends they were both in tears. Scared shitless. Alex was already rethinking everything she wanted for the next three days. “Come on!” Alex waved to the girls to come outside of the car. As soon as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, she took a deep breath of the fresh air. This was pure heaven. Something you just can’t get in a Glade freshener. After a few seconds walking away from her car and closing her eyes to hear all of the sounds of the trees, animal noises and birds singing. She turned around to see both Chloe and Sophia were still inside the car, probably locked themselves in there. She put her hands at her waist. “Get your asses out of there!” Alex voiced to the windshield. Apparently the girls read her request because all she got back were four middle fingers. She was less than pleased, but then again she didn’t except anything better than that. Alex started walking back to the car and unlocked the car with her keys, and grabbed everything out of the car. “If you don’t get out of this car right now, I’ll roll down all the windows and have you suffer your first night fending for yourselves.” Five seconds later Chloe and Sophia bravely climb out of the car.

Chloe and Sophia were more scared of Alex then they were the whole camping thing. Because they knew Alex was a hard ass. She meant well though. Once the girls were out of the car, they started looking around, looking for a soft and even ground to set up their tent. They watched Alex feel the ground with her feet to see if it was all the same level or not. She grabbed the bag that had their tent supplies. “I’ll set up the tent and you guys find sticks and medium size logs for the fire. Think you can manage that?” Alex said in a harsh voice, both girls nodded swiftly before heading out onto the walking trail. They looked around and were both in awe of nature. They spent too much time on their phones, to realize the Earth’s true beauty. Chloe was generally welcoming to the whole camping thing, she started collecting random sticks in her hands while Sophia watched her closely, she followed what she saw her sister do, picking up the smaller sticks. Before you knew it, Chloe had probably 25-30 good sizes of sticks and Sophia had about five tiny sticks. When they arrived back to camp, Alex had managed to get the whole tent up and was unloading the air mattress from the car, she saw that they actually brought something back. She was impressed with Chloe, but seeing Sophia’s offering was reassuring that should could be taught as long as her sister was around.

That night, they got the fire going and all three girls sat on the ground next to their bright and warm fire. Chloe and Sophia had their arms around their legs as the sun faded the temperature dropped, even though Alex swore she packed a couple of sweatpants for them in their bags they were too in love with looking at the dimly lit sky above them. Alex sat by herself in silence and had her mind on other things like childhood memories of she and her family sitting by the fire eating dad’s fresh catch out of the lake. Alex and her older sister and younger brothers all cheered and laughed at the random jokes and stories their father told on their trips. She started to get kind of sad until they heard a faint sound of a guitar. All three girls wondered what the noise was, they looked at each other in horror before screaming and heading into their nice tent, but not before Alex grabbed a water bottle and poured it on their fire. “ALEX! Why did you do that for?” Sophia said, as she sat in the very back of the tent. “Do you really think it would be the best idea for somebody to find us if they saw our fire’s smoke?” Alex said before tossing the water bottle and hightailing it into the tent, zipping it up and locking her car. A little bit after hearing the strange noise, it was gone but the girls were exhausted. If they were going to go hiking tomorrow, they’d need all the energy they could get so they headed for bed.

The next day, Chloe woke up to the heat rising underneath her covers, she knew the temperature would be high for the day, so she tossed the covers off and looked over at Sophia still passed out with a blindfold over her eyes and Alex still snoozing over on the far end of the tent. She wanted to go for an early morning run before anybody decided to get up. So she tossed off her blankets gently to not wake anybody up, grabbed her iPod and digital camera from her purse and unzipped the tent and changed into her workout clothes while letting in some of the cool breeze from outside. She sat up and walked out of the tent and found the same walkway she and Sophia took yesterday to find the sticks and went on a run. Chloe stood in the middle of the woods, trying to grasp the beauty of everything she was seeing around her. She was glad that she brought her camera with her and began to take dozen of pictures. She stood in the middle of eight trees that were lined in a perfect circle. She had her earplugs in her ears so she couldn’t hear much of the animal noises as she knew if she did she’d just start freaking out like she did last night.

While she was walking through the deeper part of the woods, she came across a very strange camping ground full of different festive decorations. She started making assumptions that maybe what they heard last night was from a party, but this wasn’t no ordinary party when she continued walking through the grounds, there is a beautiful decorated wagon, that she could only think this is what the professor in The Wizard Of Oz, could’ve looked like in color. She wondered if anybody was still around, so she said, “hello?” Once she said it, a little cat came walking out to her. “Aw, how cute!” Chloe said and bent down to pet it, it leaned in to her hand and purred. “Who is it?” a man’s voice came from inside the wagon. Chloe had the urge to run the hell out of there, but her feet stood in their spot, unmoved. “Um, my name is Chloe. My friends and I heard some noises last night and considering the mess out here, I’m taking it came from here.” Chloe said trying to figure out what to do next. “There was no…” a tall shirtless individual came walking out of the wagon with some navy blue shorts on. “party last night.” They looked up at each other, completely gazed by one another’s beauty. Chloe was glad of the fact she talked Alex into letting her bring her workout clothes but regretted the fact of how sweaty she was too. “Oh, well then where was the music coming from?” She said, casually looking around for some kind of instruments. “Oh, it was me you heard.” The strange man said, “Who is it Nate?” a woman’s voice echoed from inside the wagon. This Nate turned around and then pointed at Chloe with the one second gesture.

As Nate left, Chloe could feel the sweat drip off her body, even though she was no longer running. Which only meant that she was getting hot because of him. When he finally came back, he came back with a woman who was hardly wearing anything but a thin summer dress. “Oh, you were right, she is beautiful. Hi, my name is Orlena.” This strange women looked to be in her mid-20’s and had brown hair, green eyes. She looked very athletic and could probably outrun Chloe in a heartbeat. “Hi, my name is Chloe.” She said, now even more nervous then she was just talking to Nate. “Are you two a couple?” Chloe said, just blasting through the awkwardness. “Well, actually…” Nate began to say, “We’re in an open relationship.” Orlena said to Chloe, which really made her uncomfortable. “We also like to share partners too.” That was a bit more than what Chloe wanted to know, but that’s what she gets after going for it. “Not all the time though.” Nate said lovingly. “Well, isn’t that nice.” Chloe said as the random cat was still rubbing up against her. Apparently the cat didn’t have a preference either. “Oh, that’s Jack. He seems to have fallen in love with you Chloe.” Orlena said as she walked over to the two of them. “We were about to eat some breakfast, would you like to join us?” Orlena said lovingly, and started gently touching Chloe red cheek, slowly drifting down to her neck and then to her left shoulder. Chloe could feel the heat within her heighten but she still couldn’t move. “We have plenty of room. We have strawberries, oranges, and Nate made these amazing pancakes.” Hmmm..pancakes! She didn’t even know what Alex had packed for breakfast, so in a way she wanted to stay but she knew that breakfast could be code for something else for all she knew.

“Oh come on, Ori, you’re making her blush!” Nate said as walked away for a second as his girlfriend was starting to get a little too friendly with her, and had a plate full of strawberries in his hands. He walked towards them and Jack began to beg for droppings. Orlena grabbed one of the strawberries and put it just above Nate’s lushest lips and as she began to hold it up higher, he stood up on his tippy toes and bit into the strawberries, juices dripped down his mouth and Orlena couldn’t help herself and began to give him kisses. Chloe was in a little bit of shock, but she couldn’t say anything. She was speechless. Nate and Orlena gave each other a look before Nate grabbed one of the strawberries and put it over Chloe’s mouth, he didn’t tease her unlike Orlena would have done. The juice dropped down from her lips, she tried to catch it all with her fingers but Nate’s mouth beat it to her. She groaned from the sensation. “Chloe! Chloe! CHLOE NICOLE THOMPSON, ANSWER ME NOW!” Alex and Sophia shouted into the woods. Their hollers took her out of the fantasy of her dreams, “I’m coming! I’m coming!” Thanks for ruining a perfect moment ladies! “I’m sorry I can’t stay I have to get back but thank you for the strawberry though.” That’s all Chloe uttered out, and she was lucky that’s all she could say! “Have a great day Chloe!” Orlena said as she came over to her and gave her a hug and gently kissed her on the lips. Chloe was feeling all sorts of emotions, but once Orlena let go, Nate came over and also kissed on the lips, his kiss was more aggressive. Once he left go of her, he lifted Orlena up in the air and carried her back into the wagon. Chloe stood there in a trance until she heard noises of passion and began to walk back along the trail. She was greeted to both Alex and Sophia. who were more than pissed off at her for leaving. “Where did you go?” Sophia said as she hugged her sister. “I’ve been out of the city too long.” Chloe said as she released Sophia and hugged Alex, they all walked back to camp together and Chloe grew to love being out of the woods a little more.

Beside You – Part 11

grizzlybear

Chloe had left after Brenda decided to come back to the house. She looked sad in her face, but also looked happy within herself. Which was a change the sisters had seen in her. Did the slight happiness mean she was through with John’s ways for good? Claire sat on one of the empty bar stools and watched her older sister sway back and forth between the walls in the living room. She had decorated this entire house to fit John’s needs and what her daughters needed to stay safe and comfortable. As much as she wasn’t sure about wanting to be in the same position their mother was in, while their father left them. She knew it in her heart that no matter how hurt she tried to deny it, it was headed down that road. Claire was scared for both of her sisters. Brenda was now on the road to become a single parent and her marriage was definitely over. While Chloe was a newlywed and ready for the life a head of them. She believed in love as if she didn’t see everything crumbling around her. And Claire sat alone, watching her baby nieces and wondered if the choices she had made in the past were the right ones to make. She was the cheater in all of her relationships, but that didn’t mean she never cared for her partners. Especially Matt.

Matt was everything to her. He had been her friend for years. While in school, they had become such good friends that after every relationship she ruined, he would let her cry on his shoulder. As any best friend would do. He never expected much out of her, as she was never the type to carry her heart on her sleeve. Just crying out loud made her feel vulnerable. Her family and friends thought of her as not caring about anybody but herself, but that was far from the truth. She loved all types of people. She was blessed with looking like her momma, but having her father’s ways to about thinking about her next fix and screwing love more times than it screwed her. Matt was different for her though. After graduating from high school, he went away and went to school upstate and she was left alone. Before she and Matt decided to give their relationship a go, Matt was dating some little redhead named Samantha, and when everybody came home for Thanksgiving break, Matt seen Claire at their annual school function as they each had nieces that went to the same school and they sat two rows away from each other. Matt had Samantha wrapped his finger and they held hands walking around, once Matt saw Claire and Brenda. They hugged, but the girls only shook hands. Claire has never felt jealous before, but she could feel the fire through Samantha’s red hair. Claire was a natural-born blonde and blue-eyed girl and for a long time she thought that’s what Matt liked, but looks like he had changed his standards.

“Claire?” Brenda said, as she slowly tapped Claire’s shoulder gently. “Huh? Oh Jeez, Brenda. I’m sorry I spaced out.” Claire said as she wiped her eyes with her thumbs. Thinking about the past was what she was trying to wipe away, but knew that would be too easy to come true. “No, it’s all right. What were you thinking about?” Brenda said, as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed the handle to the fridge and grabbed a can of Sprite and cracked the can open. She took a swig of it and put it on the counter next to her younger sister. Brenda took a seat on the opposite side of her sister who still seemed as distance she walked into the kitchen. “Nothing much. Wondering about Chloe and Hank.” She lied through her teeth because it wasn’t like Claire to still care for an ex, even if they were best friends. “Yeah, did she leave?” Brenda said as she probably regretted what she said to her before she left to meet up with  John. “Yeah, about an hour ago. She said she wanted to go back to the house and get some sleep.” Claire said as she sat back up and jumped up off her seat and started walking over to the kitchen table. She could hear a faint buzzing inside her bag full of clothes. She put her hand inside and pulled out her phone. She expected to find a text from Chloe instead it was from Matt. They had intended on keeping in contact for the sake of their friendship, but it had felt weird to continue on it, if she had the burden of cheating on him. The text had read, “Hey, I’ve been thinking of you and wondering how things were with Brenda?” Word travels fast in a small town.

Claire was convinced that Matt’s text was a comeback to her like, “I told you so” because he believed in karma. She had done him wrong that her troubles in her love life that it transferred over to her older sister’s life. She brushed it off and texted him back with, “She’s dong fine and I’ve been thinking about you too. What are you up to?” Claire was honest as she’s ever been with a past breakup. She didn’t know if he had seen Samantha after they broke up. Matt was back at school when Chloe’s wedding was taken place. She really wanted him there and Chloe had even sent him and his family an invitation, when Chloe and Claire only saw his parents and Matt was nowhere to be seen, Claire seemed more broken-hearted. She braved a brave face for the sake of her older sister Brenda and her nieces. Inside though, she was breaking just as much as Brenda and Chloe were. She’s never had a relationship ever affect her like the one. Five seconds later, Matt texts her back with, “Well that’s good. I’m glad to hear that. I’m not up to much. Been studying and working a lot at the gym.” Matt was the last person to be seen at a gym, but since he’s been going to college upstate, he’s been working out and even though ugly Christmas sweaters were getting in the way of seeing how much muscle he has in his upper body, there was still improvement.  Whatever drove Claire to ignore him while they were growing up, sure made her start to wonder when she moved back home and Matt came back on break. It was like nothing she had experienced before. Love was never her friend before, but when her best friend was involved she was still afraid to commit to somebody who was willing to love her anyways.

When Claire didn’t text him back. She felt bad, but then again she didn’t have anything to say to them. He was mostly concerned for Brenda, not her. Was he over her already? Could he have gotten back with Samantha? So many questions filled her mind all at once and it started to scare her. She wasn’t ready to fall in love and wasn’t ready if he decided to give up on her fully. At this moment, Brenda looked at her younger sister, wondering what could possibly be going on with her mind right now. Even though Brenda had a lot to think about at the moment. She wanted to hear something new about her baby sister. She knew about her relationship with Matt was close to home, but she started noticing that she was still thinking about Matt and talking about him too. She knew before they even decided to date each other, they were best friends. Brenda remembered how she was told stories of parents being best friends growing and Chloe and Hank were best friends too. Claire was too afraid to love anybody want to settle down, but she was only nineteen. She had plenty of time to still date and not think about a family of her own. However, Brenda also knew that if things didn’t start to perk up soon, seeing the happiness in Claire’s eyes won’t come back again and she’s just give up on everything that she should have with somebody who cared about her, even if that meant being Matt.